Wednesday, October 22, 2014

I couldn’t think of a lot of protagonists from classic literature whom I wanted anyone to emulate, except in the most vague way—because they learn lessons and grow up and so on.
I posed this question to my students, because I didn't (and don't) have an answer. We came up with a few answers: Ulysses (but not the gods); Jesus (but not a lot of the patriarchs, at least not halfway through their "stories"); Paul, maybe; sheriffs in old Westerns; superheroes, at least in the early days; Founding Fathers. (Jane Eyre, maybe, but . . . maybe not.) But I brought up the fact that Lizzy Bennet and Emma Woodhouse are not people we ought to emulate, nor are a lot of Biblical characters, nor Shakespeare protagonists, nor many, many, many protagonists from classic literature, especially in the nineteenth century. (Alissa Wilkinson)

Had Charlotte Brontë stretched out on Dr. Sigmund Freud’s couch, she might have reduced Jane Eyre’s traumas to a psychological exercise instead of writing the lush novel that’s become a classic. (Bob Hoover)

In high school, Todd loved reading the books we're all forced to read in English class. Whether for school or pleasure, she only read classic novels like Pride & Prejudice and Wuthering Heights, and when she found a book she liked, she'd read it over and over again. "Most people in my class were like, 'This is terrible,' but I got really, really into it, and I loved it." (Amy Odell)